The Rise of Islamic Capital and the Decline of Islamic Radicalism in Turkey

Abstract

Islamists have more power in the Turkish political system than ever. Their 2007 electoral majority in parliament has allowed them not only to control the government but also to elect the president. Islamists thus pose a major challenge to the political domination of the ruling secularist coalition that increasingly expresses its fear that an Islamic revolution may jeopardize secularists' rights. On the other hand, another critical concern, muted much more in the press, is the possibility that secularist groups would lose their privileged economic position following a circulation of elites in favor of the new Islamist actors. The rising power of provincial entrepreneurs who have long been part of the Islamist movement particularly discomforts the secularist coalition consisting of the state bureaucracy and the state-protected urban business elite. Nevertheless, the revolutionary scenarios have not come to pass. Ironically, the Islamist movement in Turkey moderated following the rising power and shifting interests of leading Islamist actors, most particularly the provincial entrepreneurs. The turning point in Islamists' moderation took place in 2001 when a sizable faction, mainly consisting of younger provincial entrepreneurs, announced their split from the radical Islamist group to establish the Justice and Development Party (AKP).1 The leaders of the AKP emphasized that they had changed; they had embraced the rules of democracy and would keep religion apart from political discourse. In contrast to previous Islamic parties which had had religious reservations about liberal democracy and open capital markets and were openly hostile to the West, the AKP came to power with a discourse embracing pluralism and all aspects of free market economics, as well as rapprochement with the West. A single year after its establishment, the AKP won 34 percent of the vote in 2002 and increased its support further to 41 percent in 2004 (municipal elections) and 47 percent in 2007 (national elections). With this electoral support the AKP vanquished not only other secularist parties but also the radical Islamists in the Felicity Party (SP). This major decline in support for radicalism signaled important changes taking place within the Turkish Islamist movement and raised critical questions. What was the process